


English Lessons

by dodger_chan



Series: personal overwatch canon [8]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Pre-Fall of Overwatch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 14:30:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13413258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dodger_chan/pseuds/dodger_chan
Summary: Elementary aged Fareeha kills time in her Uncle Jack's office.





	English Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> _Italics_ indicate English. Everything else is in Masri, which is Egyptian Arabic
> 
>    
> Today's personal canon:  
> 1) Everyone at Overwatch speaks multiple languages, with varying degrees of fluency, focused mainly on what's useful for military ops. Particularly swearing.  
> 2) Jack Morrison sounds like a midwesterner in every language (he's also bi, but that's less well thought out personal canon and more my default assumption for all fictional characters until explicitly told otherwise).

     English was not quite Fareeha's favorite subject, but it was easily her best one. Speaking it was easy; her mom was basically fluent, dropping into English at the oddest moments, and always willing to help Fareeha practice. When she was around, at least.  
     It wasn't her mother's fault, Fareeha knew. A soldier couldn't set her own hours. It still stank, though, when Fareeha was supposed to be hanging out with her mom but instead she was killing time in Uncle Jack's office, reading ahead in her English book, while her mom flew back from whatever secret mission she wouldn't be able to tell Fareeha about this time.  
     Reading in English was harder than speaking it. It helped that once she figured out what the word said she usually knew what it meant, but the English alphabet was still a bit of a puzzle. A puzzle she did not enjoy.  
      _No, it is the twenty ducks_. How was Fareeha supposed to learn a language if her textbook had sentences like that? When would anyone use a sentence like that? Fareeha groaned softly and stuffed the book back in her bag. That sentence was _bullshit_. Maybe she should share that word with her English class. Probably not. Her teacher would tell her dad, and then her dad would be mad at her mom for talking like a soldier where Fareeha could hear.  
     “Are you alright, Fareeha?” Uncle Jack asked in his terrible accent. Uncle Gabriel said that he had it in every language.  
     “Yeah, I'm fine.” It was too bad that Uncle Jack had been around and not Uncle Gabriel when her dad had dropped her off. Uncle Jack was nice enough, but Uncle Gabi would have taken her to the range, or one of the training rooms and let her do something fun. Something useful for when she grew up and joined Overwatch. Something like English practice, since it was the common language of the group. Unfortunately, that stupid textbook was the only English she'd brought with her. There wasn't much to read in Uncle Jack's office, either. His name plate on the door wasn't so hard, once she realized his first name wouldn't be on it. _Strike Commander J. Morrison_. The big recruitment poster was even easier. The only word on it was _Overwatch_ ; Fareeha knew that word as well as she knew her own name. The smaller poster, the one with the unicorn on it, gave her some trouble.  
     Part of it was that the letters changed color from top to bottom; the upper word going from blue to purple, the word underneath from purple to pink. Once she figured out the color issue, she was able to read the words. The second word she knew. Eash; _exist_. The first word, though, didn't seem at all familiar. She dug out her textbook. The glossary in the back didn't have it.  
     “Uncle Jack, what's your poster say?” Fareeha pointed.  
     “Poster? Oh. It, uh, it says ' _bisexuals exist_ '.” He read the words in English, which gave her the pronunciation, but otherwise didn't help.  
     “What's it mean? Can you translate?” Uncle Jack was usually good about teaching her new words.  
     “It's the first word you're having trouble with, right?” She nodded. “I don't know what the word for it is in Masri. But basically someone who dates both girls and boys is _bisexual_.”  
     That explained the word, but the sign still didn't make sense. “And people don't believe in them? Like El Naddaha?”  
     “Well, most of us tend to date one person at a time. So people tend to assume we're, uh,that we only date boys or girls. Sorry, I don't know the Masri for _gay_ or _straight_.” Fareeha is about to ask when he explains, “ _Gay_ refers to people who only date people of the same gender, _straight_ to those who only date people of the opposite gender.”  
     “So do you have the poster because you're _bi-sex-u-al_?” Fareeha picked carefully through the syllables of the English word. Uncle Jack snorted.  
     “I have the poster because your Uncle Gabriel is an _asshole_.” That word Fareeha knew “But yes, I am.”  
     Fareeha was tempted to ask what Uncle Gabi being an asshole had to do with anything but she knew she'd be in trouble with her mom if she bothered Uncle Jack too much. Three new English words – grown-up English words she wouldn't learn in school – would have to be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Jack's explanations are a bit simplistic because Fareeha is a kid and he's not her parent.
> 
> The sentence "No, it is the twenty ducks." comes from Duolingo.
> 
> El Naddaha is the Nile's version of sirens. 
> 
> Reyes bought Morrison the poster because he thought it might make some higher ups uncomfortable.


End file.
